As the year draws to its close, the “Best Books of 2021” lists have been released: The New York Times’ 10 Best Books and 100 Notable Books; NPR’s Books We Love (rebranded from its erstwhile title of “Book Concierge”); Times’ 100 Must-Read Books. These lists are full of worthy, compelling, interesting reads–that will likely have long hold lists in our system. While you’re waiting for some of the big-name titles from 2021 to come in, here are a few suggestions for great books that flew under the radar this year.

For fiction lovers of realistic stories, Infinite Country by Patricia Engel weaves a generational tale out of five different voices within a Columbian family in pursuit of safety and opportunity. Elena, Mauro, and their first child manage to leave Bogotá for America; but even as their family grows and they settle into their new life, the precariousness of their undocumented status comes to a head when Mauro is deported. In this same category but quite different in scope, there is also Nona Fernández’s The Twilight Zone, a novel that opens in 1980s Chile during Pinochet’s dictatorship, when secret service agent Andrés Antonio Valenzuela Morales walks into a dissident magazine’s offices to confess his many state-supported crimes. What follows is a taut story about complicity, resistance, history, and the contradictions of a reality in which horrifying political machinations exist side-by-side with the banality of everyday routine. (This book is especially recommended for fans of gritty spy novels. Finally, for a more modern but no less important story, We Are Watching Eliza Bright by A.E. Osworth focuses on the eponymous Eliza Bright: the only female coder at a gaming company to have reached elite status. After she files a sexual harassment report, the company brushes her off; when she takes her story to the press, the company fires her, and she finds herself engulfed in public controversy. Some people rally to her side, while others threaten, harass, and dox her. The subsequent escalation examines obsession, questions the line between real life and internet life, and explores the manifestations of male and female rage.

For those looking for something slightly less literal, Alex McElroy’s The Atmospherians may be just the ticket. Once-beloved social media darling Sasha Marcus has been canceled, and in her search for a job, she reconnects with an old childhood friend. He makes her the face of his new business: “The Atmosphere,” billed as a career workshop for men, but actually designed as a rigorous program to heal them of toxic masculinity. Billed as “the Fight Club for the millennial generation,” the novel is a satirical take on social media and influencers, wellness culture, and self-mythologization. Along similar lines, another novel that uses satire as a framework is Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder. An unnamed, stay-at-home mother lives with her 2-year old son in increasing frustration and isolation from her always-traveling, always-working husband–until, one night, she finds that she is (literally) transforming. The metaphor of body horror and transformation functions as a way to make sense of the bizarre new state of motherhood; but lest you be put off by the premise, reviewers have described it as “joyfully subversive.”

The past year in publishing has also turned out a rich crop of excellent non-fiction reads, for those in the mood for essays, memoirs, or otherwise factually-based accounts. If you’re in the mood for slightly lighter fare, Kate Lebo’s The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (With Recipes) is a wide ranging, genre-bending memoir/cookbook that includes 26 essays and accompanying recipes–one for every letter of the alphabet. Alternatively, if culinary musings aren’t your thing, you might enjoy Pop Song: Adventures in Art and Intimacy by Larissa Pham, another series of essays that center on the topics of love and intimacy, heartache and cultural connection, and–of course–art.

History buffs might be interested to check out Sarah Schulman’s Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993, which has been described as the most comprehensive political history account yet written about ACT UP and other American AIDS activists. (While you’re at it, season 3 of Pose is finally out, if you’re the type to combine historical writing with fictional media counterparts.) Readers with a more modern socio-political interest might prefer to pick up White Magic: Essays by Elissa Washuta, writing that spans everything from land and colonization to pop culture phenomenon Twin Peaks to video games to witchcraft and tarot; or Anjali Enjeti’s Southbound: Essays on Identity, Inheritance, and Social Change, a memoir about the process of self-discovery and activism around her identity as a mixed-race woman in the Deep South.

These suggestions barely scratch the surface of all the great books that were released in 2021, of course; if you’re looking for additional recommendations for books you might have missed this past year, give us a call or send us an email. We’re always happy to connect readers to books and vice versa.

Have a safe and happy New Year, and we’ll see you in 2022!

Hilary Umbreit (they/them) is the Adult Services Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, MA. Look for their article in the December 30, 2021 issue of the Transcript and Bulletin.

Cooking has always been a mad dash for me. I often get so excited about the finished product that I will have made that I don’t take the time to properly prep my ingredients. My standard cooking method is to just plop all of the ingredients on the table, and then measure and chop as I go down the list of recipe steps. This method inevitably leads to a lot of rushing and dashing around the kitchen to grab measuring spoons, cutting boards, and to toss my various used cooking utensils into my rapidly overflowing sink. Comparing my method to the way that I see people cook on Food Network always left me wondering what exactly I was doing wrong. How come they always seemed so relaxed when cooking, while I was always left exhausted? The same thought would occur whenever I heard someone talk about how they found cooking “relaxing,” or how they loved to cook to “unwind.” I’d always scoff at that sentiment, because what was so relaxing about rushing to make sure your onions were chopped before throwing them into your pan that was now spitting oil and about to catch fire?

Part of me knew that these people, especially chefs on TV, always had their ingredients prepped, but my cooking tends to be so on the fly that I never even considered taking the time to physically prep all of my ingredients beforehand. I would try to get all of the ingredients I needed out onto my work surface, but I would only bother to measure and chop them as I was following along with the recipe steps. Then, when I finally picked up a copy of Anthony Bourdain’s classic, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, I learned about the magic of the mise en place. Bourdain writes that mise en place is “the religion of all good line cooks” (Bourdain). Mise en place, which translates to “putting in place” from French, is the act of both prepping and organizing your ingredients prior to the cooking process. For example, if you were making a dish that required chopped onions and garlic, you would take the time to chop up the onions and the garlic and to set them aside before you started the actual cooking. You would also measure out your ingredients and keep them prepared in little bowls or containers in order to streamline the cooking process.

Once I started incorporating mise en place into my cooking routine, I found that cooking became much less stressful. The process became a lot smoother, and I wasn’t as stressed out when cooking. I also discovered that I find chopping produce oddly relaxing. After I amassed a large amount of apples after an apple-picking trip to Natick, I was trying to find recipes that would use up a lot of apples, and I found one for an apple cake, which involved lots of chopping and peeling. There was something so relaxing about peeling the apples, and then using a good knife to chop them up, all while not having to rush. I used to dread having to cook a recipe that called for chopped up onions or other produce, but now I relish the time I get to spend chopping them up. I now see why some people use cooking as a way to unwind or relax. If you are able to take the time to prepare your ingredients with care, and you don’t have a time restraint on your cooking, then it can become very soothing and fulfilling to chop up a bunch of apples and then pop them into a pie, for example.

If you would like to start incorporating a mise en place into your cooking process, these are the steps that you should follow. First, have your recipe on hand, and make sure that you have all of the measuring tools and cooking equipment that you will need. Second, wash and chop, peel, and measure out all of your ingredients. Once you are done preparing all of your ingredients, place them in appropriately-sized bowls and containers so that they will be at the ready for when you start cooking. Finally, make sure that your prepped ingredients are conveniently placed around your work area so you can just reach over and grab them when needed. To quote Anthony Bourdain once more, “The universe is in order when your station is set up the way you like it” (Bourdain).

If all this talk of mise en place and cooking makes you want to start whipping out the measuring cups and cutting boards, here are some recommendations for my favorite cookbooks. One of my all-time favorite home cooks is Ree Drummond, and I always make sure to check out every new Pioneer Woman cookbook that she releases. I love Drummond’s cookbooks because she always includes lots of step-by-step photos that go along with her recipes, which I always find to be massively helpful when attempting a new recipe. Chrissy Teigen’s Cravings cookbooks are another of my favorites. I really like the intros that she writes for each recipe explaining its background or inspiration in her life, plus all of the food that she creates always looks so yummy! Asian recipes are some of my favorite foods to eat and cook, and my go-to cook for great Korean recipes is Maangchi, who originally started sharing her recipes on YouTube and her food blog, but now has a great cookbook out, Maangchi’s Big Book of Korean Cooking: from Everyday Meals to Celebration Cuisine. Another great cookbook featuring Asian cooking is Lucky Rice: Stories and Recipes from Night Markets, Feasts, and Family Tables, by Danielle Chang which provides a variety of recipes from countries all over Asia. If you’re looking for a more plant-focused cookbook, The Peach Truck Cookbook features 100 recipes all incorporating my favorite fruit, peaches! Another great cookbook that is vegan-friendly is Plant-Powered Protein, which features over 100 recipes that all use vegan ingredients such as plant-based meat alternatives (their recipe for vegan massaman curry is my favorite!) Finally, if all this talk of cooking intrigues you, but you may not be the most experienced cook, You Suck at Cooking: the Absurdly Practical Guide to Sucking Slightly Less at Making Food is a hilarious, but very helpful cooking guide and cookbook for the new chef.

Dina Delic is the Assistant Children’s Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, MA. Look for her article in the November 11, 2021 issue of the Transcript and Bulletin.

A few years ago I moved into a house in the country (well, Holliston), with a bit of land, fenced in garden, and… a chicken coop. Mercifully, the previous owners did not leave chickens behind, and I convinced my husband that knowing NOTHING about raising poultry, we’d best wait a bit before starting a flock. As a librarian, I committed to doing my research before diving into a new endeavor caring for living creatures.

At a family get-together I discovered that a distant cousin had chickens, and asked her “What do they eat?” Her answer: “Everything,” seemed glib and less than useful. Nowadays when asked the same question, I offer the exact same answer. I field many inquiries about chickens, and a handful stand out as the most common. After just three years of chicken-wrangling, I don’t pretend to be an expert, but I shall attempt to answer some here.

Q: What do they eat?

A: Everything. Well, not everything, but we do feed them: leftovers, garden weeds, grass clippings, oyster shells, desserts, cat food, and (gasp) chicken, and eggs. They don’t grasp the notion of chicken or egg-eating as cannibalism, and we only introduce leftover cooked eggs, so they don’t develop a taste for their own freshly laid eggs. On their own they enjoy insects, earthworms, and Lyme Disease carrying ticks. Dave Ingham, in Backyard Chickens: How to Keep Happy Hens, confirms, “Hens are omnivorous, meaning they eat anything.”

I didn’t know based on the “everything” response that the birds also dine on “crumble,” a supply of food that stays in their coop for everyday consumption. Chicks get one formula, youngsters consume a “starter/layer” formula to encourage egg development, and when fully grown, hens graduate to “layer” variety. Crumble contains a mix of grains, vegetable protein, animal fat, vitamins and minerals, including calcium important for strong eggshells. The familiar term “chicken scratch” refers to a blend of seeds and corn (like bird seed) we toss around the run as a snack they enjoy “scratching” for in the dirt. Our hens love apples, fight over salmon and animal fat, and have no interest in asparagus.

Q: What do you do in the winter?

A: Chickens have managed to evolve and survive all over the world for centuries, and I think they tolerate winter better than I do after a few rounds of shoveling snow. However hearty though, cold climates require provision of some heat when temperatures drop below freezing. We use a red heat lamp in their coop to provide warmth without messing up their circadian rhythms. When they feel cold, hens huddle together and cuddle keeping each other warm (and cute). Following a D.I.Y. tip from a backyard chicken web forum, we made a basic heater to prevent their water from freezing. We cut a hole in the side of a Christmas cookie tin, put in a light bulb with a cord attached, and placed their waterer on top.

Q: Do you need to have a rooster to make eggs?

A: Sorry, reader – you may feel awkward, but the time has come for us to have The Talk. No, you don’t need a rooster; single ladies make eggs too. Just like women, hens produce eggs. Human females during their fertile years generally create one per month, with or without a man. In both species, the male comes into the picture to fertilize an egg, potentially making a baby. Our Casanova rooster enjoys “fertilizing eggs” indeed, but we collect eggs every day or so, in advance of embryos developing into chicks.

Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens explains the tendency of “broodiness,” when hens feel a maternal instinct so-to-speak, and would prefer sitting on their eggs to hatch them instead of continuing to lay. Some breeds get more broody than others; ours couldn’t care less about offspring.

Q: Don’t you hate store-bought eggs now?

A: Nope. Some may feel this way, and I do prefer mine straight from the coop, but I love eggs and even indulge in Dunkin’ Donuts bacon egg and cheese breakfast wraps from time to time.

Q: Do your neighbors get mad?

A: Fortunately we have enough buffer space between yards to, hopefully, protect folks from the rooster’s pre-dawn wake up calls. Local ordinances vary, partly based on potential rivalries bound to stem from chicken coops in close proximity to neighbors’ bedrooms. Ours have never complained… although we do bring them a fresh dozen now and then.

Becoming a backyard chicken farmer turned out much easier than I expected, and requires minimal work after the initial setup. The Backyard Homestead includes beginner-level information about selecting breeds, and the life cycle of egg production. The library has titles devoted to building chicken coops, including How to Build Chicken Coops, by Daniel and Samantha Johnson, and a volume from the For Dummies series. If the whole family gets involved, check out A Kid’s Guide to Keeping Chickens, by Michelle Caughey.

To enjoy and get creative with all of those farm-fresh eggs, I consult Michael Roux’s Eggs, All About Eggs, by Rachel Khong, and D’lish Deviled Eggs, by Kathy Casey. When the refrigerator starts getting too crowded I turn to deviled eggs, quiches, and tortilla Española to use many at once. I bring fresh eggs to parties in lieu of beer. I give them as thank-you and get-well-soon gifts. For family Easter festivities the colored egg responsibilities fall to me.

Aside from the culinary benefits, my top reason to raise chickens is because they make me smile every day. I sit in front of the run and watch them like fish in an aquarium. I laugh at their stupidity and marvel at their smarts. I try my hardest not to get attached, but cry when a bird dies due to natural causes or at the hands (or talons) of a predator. Silly, pretty, fun, and entertaining, our little flock adds tremendous joy to our modest homestead, and we have no regrets about repopulating that inherited coop.

Lydia Sampson is the Technical Services Department Head at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, MA. Look for her article in the June 13, 2019 issue of the Transcript and Bulletin.